Bat

ABSTRACT

A bat has a grip portion and an elongate, rotationally symmetric playing surface. The playing surface continuously increases in diameter towards its outer end, and the outer end is the widest part of the bat. The surface can be covered with a friction-enhancing material. The bat can be used, together with a conventional soccer ball, as a soccer practice aid.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a bat, for use as a training aid for ballgames, in particular for soccer (Association Football).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The main type of soccer training which can be carried out by a personpractising on their own relates to ball control skills, where the ballis kept under close control with the feet and/or the head, and it iswidely acknowledged that this type of training is very useful indeveloping soccer skills.

Carrying out such practice on one's own can however be frustrating,particularly for those less skilled because if the ball is not properlycontrolled, it will roll or bounce away from the player who will have tospend time retrieving it before the exercise can be started again.

Recognising this problem, several soccer training devices have beendesigned to assist in this type of soccer practice. These devices allwork by attaching a line to the ball, and either attaching the other endto the player (for example by a belt) or having the player hold theother end of the line whilst he or she is practising. In some of thesetraining devices, the line is attached to the ball by placing the ballin a string bag attached to the end of the line.

Although such devices are commercially successful, they have significantdisadvantages. Firstly, because the ball is tethered, it is not free tomove in entirely the same way as an untethered ball. Secondly, thepresence of a string bag around the ball means that the contact betweenthe player's foot and the ball is distorted. Thirdly, there is a dangerthat the tether line may become caught around the player's legs orentangled with itself or with other objects.

Fourthly, if the ball is kicked hard, it can rebound and strike theplayer which is not always desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Baseball bats are known from, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,836,541 and4,951,948 and 5,456,461. It is of the essence both in the game ofbaseball and in practice for that game, that the bat be swung at theball so that the ball can be hit a long distance by the batsman. This isof no assistance in soccer training.

The present invention seeks to overcome some or all of thesedifficulties, and provides a bat for use as a training aid for ballgames, the bat being generally elongate in form, with a grip portion atone end and a rotationally symmetric elongate playing surface extendingfrom the grip portion to the opposite end, the playing surfaceincreasing in diameter as it extends from the grip portion to theopposite end, with the point of greatest diameter being at the oppositeend and there being a shoulder at the opposite end at which the diameterof the bat increases substantially relative to the diameter of the majorpart of the length of the bat.

With such a bat, a player wishing to practice soccer skills alone canuse an untethered ball and will hold the bat in one hand, whilst kickingor heading the ball. If the ball goes out of control, it can be tappedback towards the player by hitting it with the bat, the playing orhitting surface of which is designed so that a ball which is hit by thebat will tend to be diverted towards the player. The presence of ashoulder at the remote end of the bat encourages this. The player coulduse two bats, one in each hand.

In one embodiment, the playing surface is in the form of a rightcircular cone, with a cone angle of between 5° and 15°. However theplaying surface may alternatively be in the form of a trumpet shape sothat, when seen in cross section, the sides of the playing surface areconcave and there is a substanstial increase in diameter at the remoteend, and there is a substantial increase in diameter at the remote end.

The playing surface is preferably covered with a high friction coating,such as a rubber coating, so that when a ball is hit the ball does notslide on the surface. This will make it easier for the player to ensurethat when he hits the ball, the ball is directed back towards himself.This surface should preferably be non-absorbent.

The opposite end of the bat may have a removable end cap, the capforming the point of largest diameter of the bat. The cap may screw ontoa threaded boss on the end of the bat, and the peripheral walls of thecap may be parallel sided, or tapering to merge with the tapered playingsurface of the bat.

The bat may have an interior cavity, and access to this cavity can behad by removing the end cap. If desired, the cavity can be filled with aweighting material (such as water or sand) to achieve a desired balancefor the player.

It may be desirable for the contours of the end cap not to merge withthe tapered shape of the playing surface, but to be slightly larger indiameter to form a shoulder which will enhance the likelihood of a ballbeing returned to the player when hit by the bat, when the point ofcontact with the ball takes place at the opposite end of the bat.

The bat may be made from wood, from a metal such as aluminium or, mostprobably, from a fibre reinforced composite.

The grip portion may be constructed in the same way as the grip portionof a tennis or squash racket.

The overall length-of the bat is preferably between 400 and 1000millimetres, with the most preferred length being between 500 and 800millimetres. Different length bats may be sold, with shorter bats beingappropriate for younger children. The diameter of the playing surface atits smallest diameter may be between 30 and 40 millimetres, and at itspoint of greatest diameter between 100 and 200 millimetres. The mostpreferred dimensions are in the centre of these ranges.

The invention will now be further described, by way of example, withreference to the accompanying drawings in which:

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of a bat in accordance with theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a partial cross section through the bat of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of the bat in accordance with theinvention; and

FIG. 4 is a top view of an end cap.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The bat shown in FIG. 1 has a grip portion 10 with generally parallelsides wound with a grip, in the manner conventional for, e.g., tennisand squash rackets. The grip probably only needs to be long enough to beheld by one hand as it is unlikely that a player will want to hold itwith two hands.

The bat has a playing surface 12 which tapers from a small diameter endat 14 to a large diameter end at 16. In FIG. 1, the playing surface 12is straight sided and has a constant taper angle over its length.

FIG. 3 shows an alternative embodiment where the playing surface 112 hasconcave sides and where the taper angle continually increases from thesmall diameter end 114 to the large diameter end 116.

The playing surface 12 is covered with a thin layer 18 of a rubber orrubber-like material to give it high friction properties. This can beseen particularly in FIG. 2. the surface may be a pimpled rubbersurface, with the pimples facing out, as used on table tennis bats.

At the large diameter end 16, the bat has a removable base cap 20. FIG.2 shows how this screws onto a thread at the far end of the bat. The batmay have a hollow interior at 22, with the hollow interior beingaccessible through an opening 24 after the cap 20 has been removed. Theinterior 22 can be used as a ballast chamber for containing the materialwhich will add weight to the far end of the bat to vary its balance.

The end cap and the chamber 22 are however not essential. The bat may bea single unitary solid body.

FIG. 1 shows an end cap 20 which is parallel sided and has a diameterslightly larger than that of the end 16 of the bat, so as to form ashoulder 26. The cap 120 in the embodiment of FIG. 3 has a taperingcircumference which merges into, and continues the taper of the shape ofthe playing surface 112.

FIG. 4 shows that the large surface area of the base cap 20 can beprinted with advertising material or a soccer club logo or any othergraphic material.

The bat will be used in the following way.

When a player wants to practice his soccer skills alone, he will take anordinary soccer and the bat. The bat will be held in one hand and willonly be used if the ball goes out of control or threatens to go out ofcontrol. If this happens, the player will reach out with the bat and tapthe ball to bring the ball back close to the player's body, so that itcan be brought under control again. If the ball is travelling away fromthe player, he can simply reach out and tap it back to himself; if theball is falling within the vicinity of a foot momentarily being used forstanding on, the player can bat it into the air rather than try to kickit. If the ball is out of control and bouncing away, a swift tap towardsthe ground will generally send it back in the player's direction.

One of the main advantages of this bat as a soccer practice aid, incomparison with the “ball on a string” aids hitherto used is that theball itself is unrestrained. It therefore behaves in the same manner asa ball on a soccer pitch during a soccer game. Furthermore, if theplayer wants to vary his practice, for example, by kicking the ballagainst a wall, he is free to do so or if another person comes to jointhe practice, then the ball can be kicked between them. The bat canstill be useful to recover a ball going out of control, as alreadydescribed. Practice and/or play can therefore easily be arranged intoactivities with partners or in groups. The bat requires no setting upand is extremely flexible in the manner of its use. The user mightchoose to practice some particular skill alone, but then remainsentirely free to pass to a partner or a try a shot or dribble, in orderto introduce variety.

Some soccer skills may be practiced with this bat which cannot bepractised in any other way (or at least not without assistance).

The foremost attributes of the bat are those related to maintainingcontrol of the ball and of recovering the ball after control has beenlost. However the bat can also enhance activity with a ball, in tems ofthe user's own enjoyment and in terms of a benefit in the skillacquisition process. Certain moves and ball drills become possible witha hand-held bat which are not possible without a bat.

In short, the bat is an extremely versatile and user-friendly devicewhether used seriously to develop a particular soccer skill, or simplyfor the fun of it.

It allows the user to exert manual control over the ball, whileproviding a more suitable surface than his own arm or hand and avoidingany conceptual difficulties which he might have with “handling” the ballin a soccer setting.

What is claimed is:
 1. A bat for use as a training aid for ball games,the bat comprising: a rotationally symmetric body having an elongatelength with opposite first and second ends; a grip portion at the firstend of the bat body; a playing surface extending from the grip portionto the second end of the bat body, the playing surface of the bat bodyhaving a continuously increasing diameter as it extends from the gripportion to the second end of the body, the playing surface having itsgreatest diameter at the second end of the body; the playing surfacehaving a shoulder at the bat body second end, the diameter of theplaying surface at the shoulder increases at a substantially greaterrate relative to the continuously increasing diameter of the playingsurface as it extends from the grip portion to the shoulder; and, theplaying surface is covered with a high friction coating.
 2. The bat ofclaim 1, wherein: the bat body is formed as a right circular conebetween the grip portion and the shoulder.
 3. The bat of claim 2,wherein: the right circular cone form of the bat body has a cone angleranging from 5° to 15°.
 4. The bat of claim 1 wherein: the bat body isformed in a trumpet shape as it extends from the grip portion to thesecond end of the bat body where in a cross section along the length ofthe bat body the playing surface is concave.
 5. The bat of claim 1,wherein: the high friction coating is a rubber coating.
 6. The bat ofclaim 1, wherein: the bat length ranges from 500 to 1000 millimeters. 7.The bat of claim 1, wherein: the bat length ranges from 500 to 800millimeters.
 8. The bat of claim 1, wherein, the playing surface has asmallest diameter ranging from 30 to 40 millimeters and a largestdiameter ranging from 100 to 200 millimeters.
 9. The bat of claim 1,wherein: the bat is adapted as a training aid for soccer ball games. 10.A bat for use as a training aid for ball games, the bat comprising: arotationally symmetric body having an elongate length with oppositefirst and second ends; a grip portion at the first end of the bat body;a playing surface extending from the grip portion to the second end ofthe bat body, the playing surface of the bat body having a continuouslyincreasing diameter as it extends from the grip portion to the secondend of the body, the playing surface having its greatest diameter at thesecond end of the body; the playing surface having a shoulder at the batbody second end, and the diameter of the playing surface at the shoulderincreases at a substantially greater rate relative to the continuouslyincreasing diameter of the playing surface as it extends from the gripportion to the shoulder; and an end cap is removably attached to thesecond end of the bat body and the shoulder is on the end cap.
 11. Thebat of claim 10, wherein: the end cap has a peripheral wall withparallel side surfaces.
 12. The bat of claim 10, wherein: the end caphas a peripheral wall that is tapered and merges continuously with theplaying surface of the bat body.
 13. The bat of claim 10, wherein: thebat body second end has a threaded boss and the end cap is removablyattached to the bat body second end by being screwed onto the threadedboss.
 14. The bat of claim 10, wherein: the end cap has a configurationthat does not merge with the playing surface of the bat body and has adiameter that is larger than the diameter of the bat body at the secondend of the bat body, thereby forming the shoulder at the bat body secondend.
 15. The bet of claim 10, wherein: the bat has a hollow interiorcavity.
 16. A bat for use as a training aid for ball games, the batcomprising: a rotationally symmetric body having an elongate length withopposite first and second ends; a grip portion at the first end of thebat body; a playing surface extending from the grip portion to thesecond end of the bat body, the playing surface of the bat body having acontinuously increasing diameter as it extends from the grip portion tothe second end of the body, the playing surface having its greatestdiameter at the second end of the body; the playing surface having ashoulder at the bat body second end, the diameter of the playing surfaceat the shoulder increases at a substantially greater rate relative tothe continuously increasing diameter of the playing surface as itextends from the grip portion to the shoulder; the bat body has a hollowinterior cavity; and an end cap is removably attached to the bat bodyand is removable from the bat body to provide access to the hollowinterior cavity.
 17. A bat for use as a training aid for ball games, thebat comprising: a rotationally symmetric body having an elongate lengthwith opposite first and second ends; a grip portion at the first end ofthe bat body; a playing surface extending from the grip portion to thesecond end of the bat body, the playing surface of the bat body having acontinuously increasing diameter as it extends from the grip portion tothe second end of the body, the playing surface having its greatestdiameter at the second end of the body; the playing surface having ashoulder at the bat body second end, the diameter of the playing surfaceat the shoulder increases at a substantially greater rate relative tothe continuously increasing diameter of the playing surface as itextends from the grip portion to the shoulder; and the bat is made of afiber reinforced composite material.
 18. The bat of claim 17, wherein:the second end of the bat body has an end cap and the end cap has aperipheral wall with parallel side surfaces.
 19. The bat of claim 17,wherein: the second end of the bat has a removable end cap and the endcap has a peripheral wall that is tapered and merges continuously withthe playing surface of the body.
 20. The bat of claim 17, wherein: thebat has a hollow interior cavity.